Mary Astell

Mary Astell (1666-1731) was a proto-feminist writer whose advocacy of equal educational opportunities for women earned her the title "the first English feminist."

Related Topics:
1666 - 1731 - Feminist - Writer - English

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Raised in an upper-middle-class family in Newcastle, England, she was the daughter of a conservative royalist Anglican father who managed a local coal company. She received an exhaustive informal education from her uncle, an ex-clergyman whose bouts with alcoholism prompted his suspension from the Church of England.

Related Topics:
Newcastle, England - Coal - Church of England

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Mary's uncle and father both died when she was 13, leaving her without a dowry. With the remainder of the family finaces invested in her older brother's higher education, Mary and her mother relocated to live with Mary's aunt.

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After the death of her mother and aunt in 1688, Mary moved to London in hopes of becoming a writer. Her initial failures forced her to try to capitalize on her family's ties to the Church of England by appealing to the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Archbishop shared her writing with leading intellectual circles of noble women who admired Astell's work so much that they agreed to help her publish her works.

Related Topics:
1688 - London - Church of England - Archbishop of Canterbury - Archbishop

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Her two most well known books, A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, for the Advancement of Their True and Greatest Interest (1694) and A Serious Proposal, Part II (1697), outline Astell's plan to establish Anglican nunneries to assist in providing women with both religious and secular education. According to her plan, the nunneries would be entirely student governed. Women who have completed their education would be able to teach in a nunnery or to raise children at home.

Related Topics:
1694 - 1697

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